Disability and Jesus owes it’s very being to social media, we began Tweeting as soon as we were formed, it is a place we feel at home in, it has become the home of our community.
It’s an area Bill and Dave have done lots of work in on several fronts and they were greatly aware of the potential power social media can have used wisely.
Social media is so huge now it simply can not be ignored. Facebook now has over 1 billion active users who access the site at least once a month. Twitter has roughly a quarter of that. Like it or not, participate in it or not, social media is growing and shows no signs of going away.
For many this has been a tremendous blessing. Churches and Christian organisations have been able to quickly, effectively and most importantly, cheaply get the word out about what they are doing. These sites have functioned as excellent communication tools for churches and church organisations, not just in keeping in touch with the Christian scene but more importantly with the wider world.
However there are some negatives, Christians get into arguments, and don’t always display their best behaviour and of course things can very quickly spiral out of control and before you know it a thread has gone viral, a thread that is not showing you in a good light. It is so easy to be provoked in such situations, there have been times we have had to check our own behaviour in this regard.
So how do we, as Christians, use social media in ways that are consistent with our faith? In what ways does social media impact our faith for the good and for the bad? How do we use them responsibly and where are the lines of what is appropriate and what is not? How do you keep accountable in the land of no accountability?
Well it has been a huge learning curve for us in monitoring our on line presence, not rising to the bate when people deliberately set out to be provocative and not accepting followers of a dubious nature.
At the end of the day we have learned that social media is simply what we make of it, all of us have experienced that nuisance phone call, did we ever have PPI, would you like new windows etc, we do not give up using the phone just because of such experiences, and so it is with social media, just like any other form of communication.
We like to think of it as a twenty-first century way of doing just as the early church did by sending letters when travel was too difficult. We decided early on that as we had no budget yet a great need to get the word out, that social media had to be the way for us moving forward. We like to imagine that St Paul would have had a Twitter account.
But there was another even bigger reason for us. Because of the work Bill and Dave had previously been involved in, we had already learned that social media is where many disabled people live, people who are housebound, have poor mobility, suffer from lack of confidence, difficult financial situations, have had bad church experiences, sometimes even people who do not want you to know about their disability, everyone can control how they portray themselves on social media, it is one of the only true level playing fields. So we have found that all these people now hang out on the net.
All of us use the web as a major form of communication but because of all those reasons listed above disabled people rely on it so much more than others.
It is a great sadness to us when we hear a church leader decrying social media and saying that they have no engagement with it. As we have just explained, social media is often the only way many disabled people stay in touch with the outside world, so to say you don’t do social media leaves you open to the criticism that you are not interested in disabled people.
So for us, social media means we are able to have what is in effect a virtual inclusive online community where disabled people and others are able to interact on an equal basis. A community that is growing and is now over 7600 and still growing.
For an organisation like us which has no funding we could never have achieved the reach we have in under three years without the use of social media.
Our advice to anyone else would be that social media is what you make it. We have invested a lot of time in it, in building up relationships and in policing our accounts, not letting arguments get out of hand and making sure we’re not being trolled or exploited just for someone else to build up their following and most importantly adopting a zero tolerance approach to inappropriate content.
Dave took on the job of managing our web presence both with our website and our social media presence. Having one person doing both the website and social media has enabled to have a joined up message with linked accounts and knowing that one of the team has an overview on the whole of our web pressence. Dave has treated it as his full time work and spends many hours each day on it, if you are not able to dedicate that sort of time maybe you could think of having a rota of several people. What we do know is that to have a serious social media presence takes a great deal of time, it’s about building relationships with people but trust us when we tell you it is worth it.
Here are just some of the things we have learned along the way.
We have created a virtual community on social media, a safe space where disabled people who are hurting can express that hurt in all it’s rawness, this often makes for uncomfortable reading, sometimes people have complained to us about the use of such language by people struggling to come to terms with their disability, complaining that their behaviour is inappropriate. We have had to explain to those complaining that this space has been created for just such a reason, a safe space where those in crisis can shout at God, ask difficult questions and vent their feelings. We have had to say to some very churchy people, “sorry but this space belongs to those who are hurting, if you are offended and want someone to leave, then sad to see you go but bye bye”.
Social media is not just an another activity; it is important to regard it as an investment of valuable time and resources. It is a huge opportunity to surround yourself with people who don’t just support you and stay with you, but they pray for you, they inform your thinking and introduce you to new thinking, new people and places, it opens doors.
It is vital to regard social media as a distinctive ministry, whoever is looking after your presence on social media should be doing it out of a sense of calling not just because they have a social media account. That ministry needs support from the wider church community, it needs to be prayed for. It needs protection, it needs encouragement and vigilance. Above all even though we want you to have fun we also want you to take it seriously. Before you set up a social media account pray deeply about what you want it to achieve, who is called to do the posting and how available you can be as social media only works well if you can respond quickly. Leave your social media account for more than a few hours and you are in danger of coming across as unconcerned.
If you are unable to provide this kind of commitment to it then it is probably best left alone.
A gentle, humble and helpful approach will go so much further and open doors you cannot imagine. Think from a higher level and try to see beyond today, to not regard posting as a chore but an opportunity. Some hard work, prayer and insight will bring you to paths that will reward you so highly, it’ll make the little inconvenience you incurred so very worth it.
In Social Media the “squeaky wheel” gets the oil. You have to put yourself out there, to find people who will relate or even debate with you, depending on what you are looking for.
If we are going to enter in to social media whole heartedly we must develop a thick skin. With an unshakeable sense of self – and a commitment to being compassionate – nothing will faze you.
These days, social media is moving so fast, it waits for no one. If you’re late for the party, you’ll probably be covered by all the noise and you might not be able to get your voice across. It could only mean that if you want to be heard by the crowd, you have to be fast; and on social media, that means you have to be really fast. If you are not able to respond to comments within a short time of them arriving you will lose following.
You can never go wrong by investing in communities and the human beings within them, trust us when we tell you that for many social media is their community just the same way that maybe your parish is to you.
Always remember your value doesn’t decrease based on someone’s inability to see your worth or criticism you receive on social media will drag you down.
When you lose followers because of where you stand – you strengthen your tribe. We have found this to be so true many, many times, never sacrifice principals for numbers.
Try to use social media as an idea generator, trend mapper and strategic compass for all of your ideas. Often God will use social media as a way of confirming what you might be thinking or even as a way of stealing you away from what may have become a wrong path.
What makes you different, makes you unique and therefore makes you stand out. Don’t be afraid when you are told that you are not saying the same things as others in the same field, there is probably very good reason for that. Find your own voice and don’t be tempted away to use someone else’s.
Social media is here. It’s not going away; not a passing fad. Be where people are just as Jesus did.
Good content always has an objective, be clear in your own mind what the objective is and above all pray about it, get your followers to pray for you. We have a huge number of people praying for our ministry via Twitter and their prayers are tangible things that we feel all around us, propping us up, moving us forward.
Everyone starts out on Twitter or Facebook with nobody listening to them and nobody to listen to. How and who you add determines what Twitter will become for you. Choose carefully and prayerfully. Don’t just follow anyone and more importantly don’t just let anyone follow you.
Social media will help you build up loyalty of your followers to the point that they will willingly, and for free, tell others about you.
The importance of gratitude is never forgotten. Always remember to thank followers for their help, support, prayer and encouragement, don’t ever take your followers for granted.
Engage, Enlighten, Encourage and especially…just be yourself! Social media is a community effort, try to see everyone as an asset.
Don’t be one dimensional, it is good to occasionally go off topic, to tell a funny story, to share something from your own life, it is important you show yourself and your organisation as rounded, that you can have fun and that you have concerns beyond that of your main cause.
This is a learning process and sometimes you have to fall in order to learn things.
Whenever possible reciprocate, if someone has been generous in sharing your posts with their followers then we must do the same wherever possible unless what they want shared contradicts the ethos of your organisation. There have been a few occasions when for that reason, we have had to say no.
People want to engage with you because you help them get what they want. They don’t engage with you to help you get what you want.
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